Spading device for road finishing machines



Jan. 15, 1935. A. w. FRENCH 1,987,898

SPADING DEVICE FOR ROAD FINISHING MACHINES Filed March 2. 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR 3: M wWMA 94M Jan. 15, 1935. A. w. FRENCH SPADING DEVICE FOR ROAD FINISHING MACHINES Filed March 2, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Jan. 15; 1935. A. w. FRENCH 1,937,893

SPADING DEVICE FOR ROAD FINISHING MACHINES Filed March 2, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 IRMMEREEWYN Jan. 15, 1935. I A. w. FRENCH 1,987,898

SPADING DEVICE FOR ROAD FINISHING MACHINES Filed March 2, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR Patented Jan. 15, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE' SPADING DEVICE FOR ROAD FINISHING MACHINES New Jersey Application March 2, 1933, Serial No. 659,281

9 Claims.

This invention relates generally to road finishing machines and more particularly to spading devices for such machines for spading the concrete along the edges of the road against the I road rails.

The present invention provides a spading device which makes a smooth face at the road edge where the fragments of stone come in contact with the road rail. The spading of the stones l and mortar causes the mortar to come in con tact with the rails, thereby insuring that all of the void spaces are filled up and the concrete surface produced against the rail is sound and smooth. This operation of spading has generally been done in the past'manually by workmen who go along the edge of the road after the concrete has been placed and spade along the rails with hand tools. According to the present invention, this operation is accomplished automatically, the power for operating the spading devices preferably being obtained from the same engine which propels the finishing machine, operates the tampers, strike-offs and smoothing devices which are used to compact and smooth the surface of the road.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the present preferred embodiment of my invention,

Figure 1 is a plan view of a road finishing machine embodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a sideelevation;

Figure 3 is a side elevation illustrating the spading device on an enlarged scale;

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the spading device shown in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a vertical section taken on the line V-V of Figure 3; v

Figure, 6 is a horizontal section taken on the line VI-VI of Figure 3;

Figure 7 is a side elevation of a spader blade, and

Figure 8 is a section on the line VIIIVIII of Figure 7.

Referring more particularly to the accompanying drawings, the road finishing machine comprises a framework, indicated generally by the reference numeral 2, which is supported by wheels 3 running on road rails 4. The machine is'provided with tamping devices 5, and spading devices, indicated generally by the reference numeral 7, there being a spading device on each side of the machine for spading the concrete placed adjacent each of the road rails 4. The tamping devices and the other devices usedin 55 laying concrete roads are not described in dc;-

tail since they form no part of the present invention, the invention claimed herein relating to the spading devices.

The 'spading of the concrete adjacent the road rails is done by a spader blade 8 of the shape 5 shown in Figures 7 and 8. There are two of these blades and two mechanisms for operating them, one on each side of the machine, the construction being the same for each assembly so that it will be necessary to describe only one as- 10 sembly. The blade 8 is supported in a clamp 9 by bolts 10. The clamp is formed in the forward end of an arm 11, the arm beingpivoted at its rear end on a vertical pin 12. A coil spring 13 is arranged between the arm 11 and a collar 14 which is secured by a'set screw 15 to the lower end of the pin 12. The ends of the spring are connected to the arm and to the col,- lar so asto cause the spader blade 8 to press against the road rail. If, however, in the operation of the spader it encounters an obstruction, it may swing away from the road rails against the action of the spring, thereby preventing injury to the spader.

The upper end of the pin 12 is received in and supported by aboss 12a formed on the lower end of a vertical link 17. The lower end of the link 17 is pivoted on a pin 18. The lower end of a link 16 is also pivoted on the pin 18, the link 16 having two arms which straddle the link 17. The upper end of link 16 is keyed to a shaft 19 which is supported in bearings 20 formed on the lower ends of brackets 21 which are secured at their upper ends to the framework 2 by bolts 23. The upper end of the link 17 is pivoted to a pin 24, and also pivoted to this pin is one, end of an eccentric link 25. The other end of the link 25 is formed in a strap 26. The strap fits around an eccentric 27 secured to a shaft 28 which is mounted in bearings 29. The pivot points 18, 19, 24 and 28 for the link mechanism form substantially a parallelogram when the spader is in lowered position. A sprocket wheel 30 is secured to the right-hand end of the shaft 28, as viewed in Figure 4, the sprocket wheel 30 being connected by a chain 31 to a sprocket wheel 32 secured to a drive shaft 33. The shaft 33 is driven through bevel gears 34 and 35 and other suitable gearing and clutch mechanism, indicated generally by the reference numeral 36 in Figure 1, from the engine which propels the road finishing machine.

When the drive shaft 33 is driven through the mechanism just referred to, the eccentric 27 rotating within the strap 26 lengthens and 17. The link 16 remains in fixed shortens the efiective length of the link 25. This causes the pin 24 at the upper end of link 17, and link 17 to oscillate between the full-line and dotted-line positions indicated in Figure 3, the oscillation of pin 24 being in a substantially horizontal direction. The pin 18 and link 16 remain in fixed position during oscillation of link position due to the fact that it is keyed to shaft 19, which shaft also has keyed to it a segmental weight 40. The weight 40, together with the weight of the link mechanism, tends to lower the pin 18 and link 16, but the link and pin are maintained in the position shown, by a lug 50 formed on the rear end of the link which contacts with an adjusting screw 51 mounted in a bracket 52.

Oscillation of the pin 24 causes a slight rotation of link 17, boss 12a, pin 12, arm 11 and clamp 9 about the pin 18. This slight rotation oscillates the lower end of the spader blade 8 between the dotted-line positions, as shown. The oscillation o! the spader blade is only slight, the blade remaining in the concrete during the oscillation and acting toform a smooth surface adjacent the road rail.

The lower end 8a of the spader 8 is bent forward so that when it oscillates, the tip 8?) moves not only forward, but slightly upward. As the finishing machine is moved forward while the spader oscillates, the inclination of the spader assists in holding it down in the concrete and renders it easier for it to displace or by-pass stones that are in close contact with the road rail, since the spader tends not only to push the stones away from the rail, but also to raise them slightly, thus loosening them with respect to stones beneath. If the lower end of the spader was not inclined, it would have a tendency to pack the stones rather than to move them away from the road rail.

The tip 811 of the spader is bent so as to extend away from the road rails against which it presses. The rails on each side of the road are connected together end to end, but sometimes the adjacent rails are not in exact alinement, which results in the joints not being smooth. The bending of the tip of the spader away from the rail prevents it from catching in the joint if the rails happen to be out of alinement.

When the spader is not in operation, it is raised above the road rail 4 to the chain-line position shown in Figure 3. The means for raising the spader to inoperative position is as follows: A segment 40 is keyed to the shaft 19, and since the link 16 is also keyed to the same shaft, when the segment is rotated it will rotate the shaft 19 and also the link 16. One end of a chain 41 is secured to the segment 40 by a ch 42. The chain fits in a groove formed in the periphery of the segment and passes upwardly and around a sheave 43 and is connected to a lifting mechanism 44 shown in Figure 1. A spring 45 is inserted in the chain 41 on each side of the machine between the lifting device 44 and the sheave 43 in order to take up the slack in the chain. The lifting device may be operated by means, not shown, from the engine which propels the road finishing machine.

When the lifting device is operated, the pull on the chain 41 rotates the segment 40 and the shaft 19 to which it is keyed. Rotation of the shaft rotates the link 16 to raise the pin 18' and the spader blade 8 to the chain-line position.

It has been stated previously that the spring 13 on the pin 12 maintains the spader blade 8 against the road rail 4 when the spader blade has been lowered to operative position. If some means were not adopted for preventing it, when the spader blade was raised to inoperative posi tion, the spring would swing the blade outwar ly over the road rail so that when it was at tempted to again lower the blade'it would be ob structed by the road rail. .The spader blade is moved away from the road rail as the blade is raised to inoperative position and is held away from the rail against the action of spring 13 by the means about to be described. A cam 46 is secured by screws 4'7 to the rear end of the arm 11 which supports: the spader blade. The upper end of the cam' ;.46, is formed with a nose 48 which contactswith one of the arms of the link 16 as the spader blade is raised, but before the blade is lifted entirely out of the concrete. This swings the arm 11 horizontally about the pin 12, moving the blade away from the road rail 4 into the dotted-line position shown in Figure 6. The blade is maintained in this position away from the road rail until it is again lowered into operative position, at which time the cam 46 has passed below the link 16 and the spring 13 has again become effective for pressing it against the rail. The spader blade is provided with a series of holes 49 which receive the bolts 10 so that it can be adjusted to any desired height. The depth to which the spaderblade can penetrate into the concrete is limited by the lug 50 formed on the rear end of the link 16, which lug cooperates with thei adjusting" screw 51 supported by bracket 52. 1

I have illustrated and described the present preferred embodiment of my invention. It is to be understood, however, that the invention may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim: v

1. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising an eccentric, means for rotating the eccentric, link mechanism operated by the eccentric, the pivot points of said link mechanism forming substantially a parallelogram, and a spader connected to said link mechanism and adapted to spade the concrete adjacent a road rail.

2. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising an eccentric, means for rotating the eccentric, an eccentric link connected adjacent one end tosaid eccentric, a pivot in fixed position relative to said machine, a second link pivoted adjacent one end to said pivot, a

third link connecting the other ends of said eccentric link and said second link, and a spader operatively connected to said links and adapted to spade the concrete adjacent a road rail.

3. A spading device for road finishing machines, compr'ising an'eccentr ic, means for rotating the eccentric, an eccentric link connected adjacent one end to said eccentric, a pivot in fixed position relative to said machine, a second link pivoted adjacent one end to said pivot, a third link connecting the other ends of said eccentric link and saidlsecond link, the pivot points of said links forming substantially a parallelogram, and a spader operatively connected to said links and adapted to spade the concrete adjacent a road rail.

4. A spading'device for road finishing machines, comprising an .eccentric, means for r0- tating the eccentric, an eccentric link connected adjacent one end to said eccentric, a pivot below and substantiallly in line with said eccentric and in fixed position relative to the machine, a second link of substantially the same length as said eccentric link pivoted adjacent one end to said pivot, a third link connecting the other ends of said eccentric link and said second link, and a spader operatively connected to said links and. adapted to spade the concrete adjacent a road rail.

5. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising a spader, means for operating said spader, biasing means for maintaining said spader against a road rail when in operative position, means for raising the spader to inoperative position, and means for maintaining the spader out of the vertical plane of the rail 7 as the spader is raised to inoperative position.

6. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising a spader, means for operating said spader, biasing means for maintaining said spader against a road rail when in operative position, means for raising the spader to inoperative position, and means operative as the spader is raised for maintaining the spader out of the vertical plane of the rail.

7. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising a spader support, a spader, link mechanism for operating said spader, biasing means for maintaining said spader against a road rail when in operative position, means for raising the spader to inoperative position, and means on the spader support adapted to cooperate with said link mechanism as the spader is raised for maintaining the spader out of the vertical plane of the rail as the spader is raised to inoperative position.

8. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising an eccentric, means for rotating the eccentric, a link mechanism operated by the eccentric, a spader connected to said link mechanism and adapted to spade the concrete adjacent a road rail, a pivot rotatably supported in the frame of said machine, one of the links of said link mechanism being rigidly connected to said pivot, and means other than said link mechanism for rotating said pivot to raise said link mechanism and said spader to inoperative position.

9. A spading device for road finishing machines, comprising an eccentric, means for rotating the eccentric, a link mechanism operated by the eccentric, a spader connected to said link mechanism and adapted to spade the concrete adjacent a road rail, a pivot rotatably supported in the frame of said machine, one of the links of said link mechanism being rigidly connected to said pivot, a segment rigidly connected to said pivot, a flexible element connected to said segment for rotating said pivot and raising said link mechanism and spader to inoperative position.

ALFRED W. FRENCH. 

